CommutAir QOL

So what base is junior typically? I would be commuting from TUL, so Cleveland would be difficult to get to on a 1 leg hop.
 
Till August or so, but I need a place that allows commuting as I can't do that where I'm at now. The other half has a chance for free college down there, so can't really pass that up.
 
Ahh I see! Yeah, can't pass up fee college! It looks like if you were based in CLE, you'd have to connect through ORD or IAH. What other regionals are you looking at besides Commutair?
 
H46Bubba said:
Ahh I see! Yeah, can't pass up fee college! It looks like if you were based in CLE, you'd have to connect through ORD or IAH. What other regionals are you looking at besides Commutair?
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Republic and eagle right now.
 
dvtpilot said:
So what base is junior typically? I would be commuting from TUL, so Cleveland would be difficult to get to on a 1 leg hop.
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It really depends on the company need at the time. The junior base for FOs has shifted around the horn so many times I can't even keep track. If you don't get what you want right away you typically can get it within 3 months of starting class.
 
When I started here I commuted to Newark out DC which wasn't bad at all. I'd definitely recommend living within driving distance of one of the three bases though as it makes the biggest difference!

The plane is fun.

The routes are nice, especially the longer legs.

You will get good exposure to both ends of the spectrum as far as weather goes. Brutally cold and snow/icy winters to blazing hot summer on the ramp in Newark.
 
dvtpilot said:
So are the lines built to be fairly commutable? Or not so much?
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Our bidding system is very different from the way every other airlines works. After many discussions with guys about this I'm not being condescending or mean, I just want to make it clear.

COMMUTAIR DOES NOT DO LINE BIDDING (or preferential bidding). So, throw out your whole line bidding paradigm.

So, what do we do? We bid trip by trip. Before somebody gets on here and tells you how archaic and stupid it is, It's not... The process IS archaic, and will only work with a smaller company like ours. Basically, the company posts a bid packet of all the trips. Then the most senior pilot in base and seat is called and given two hours to construct a legal bid. He or she can pick any trip that they want, any days off they want that they can legally make work. Then the next pilot bids based on what is leftover, and so on, until a legal bid can no longer be constructed. Obviously this is a very simple explanation of a complex process just to give you an idea.

So, in answer to your question, commutability is entirely a function of seniority. If you are junior in EWR or IAD, you'll probably get a lot of uncommutable trips at first. When you gain the seniority, you learn to love the system, because YOU* are completely in control of your schedule.

*Again, a simple explanation. It has to be legal, among other issues. Only the most senior can truly lay claim to complete schedule control.
 
Wow that's pretty unique, but I could see the advantages of it. I assume once your call comes to do your trip choosing that you have a website that shows what's left to choose from?
 
dvtpilot said:
Wow that's pretty unique, but I could see the advantages of it. I assume once your call comes to do your trip choosing that you have a website that shows what's left to choose from?
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That's exactly right. The bad thing is that you never know when they are going to call. They post a schedule but it's never right because they get so backed up with people flying. Thats the other thing. If they call you when you're flying, you're kind of screwed. Hopefully you get a nice scheduler who lets you wait till you're in the hotel otherwise you're scrambling to throw something together on your sits in the airport. Even though it sounds like a lot, 2 hrs is not a long time for this process. You have to his 85-95 hours (no more, no less) and 30 in 7 can cause a lot of problems.

The one thing that is incredibly stupid and archaic is our 'must work says.' On the website with the leftovers, they post 'available offs' for each day. Each day has a predetermined number of available offs based on training preassignments, and a few other variables. When bidding goes down the list and someone takes a day off, that particular day's available offs goes down by 1. When it reaches 0, that day is a must work day for the rest of the people down the list. It doesn't even make sense because if all of your trips, stand ups and reserve get covered then why do people HAVE to work that day??

Now normally, you would think that this wouldn't be a problem for senior people. Well, out in IAD in June for FOS there were a staggering number of preassignments on various days, resulting in multiple must work days....before anyone even put their bid in. I'm not sure about other people but I know that one FO in the top 5 had to bid reserve in order make a legal schedule. Top 5 and bidding reserve because of must work days. Total BS. For April, bidding stopped at #12 (of 40ish) in CLE for FOs because of must work days. So the people below #12 in CLEFO didn't even get to put a bid in. If you didn't have preferences on file for that month (and a lot of people didn't because normally this doesn't happen) you got whatever scheduling decided to give you. Reserve, stand ups, whatever.

Last summer, our union tried to show our director of scheduling that everything could get covered without must work days. They screwed up the bid so bad that he won't ever revisit that idea. So must work days are here to stay.

So yeah, scheduling is a big gripe at this company.

Sorry for the typos I'm on my phone.


This post brought to you by beta from my iPhone.
 
Just to add to the bidding while flying thing, your 2 hour time clock does not go down while you are flying. If you are sitting longer than 30 minutes then they will deduct time off your 2 hour window. I generally like bidding while flying because I'm not getting time deducted but can work on my bid in cruise.
 
OHPilot213 said:
Just to add to the bidding while flying thing, your 2 hour time clock does not go down while you are flying. If you are sitting longer than 30 minutes then they will deduct time off your 2 hour window. I generally like bidding while flying because I'm not getting time deducted but can work on my bid in cruise.
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Yeah I should have been more clear about that.

I mean I don't mind the extra time but I prefer to be sitting at a computer so I can easily look up trips in the bid packet and what not.
 
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